Uncovering Lost Roots – Heirloom Vegetables and the Seasonal Calendar
September 2007
By Suzanne Welander
When just about every type of food can be purchased at any time of the year, why would any chef willingly embrace limitations on their raw materials? A growing number are, in fact, and are finding a ready market of customers who prize the deeper connections, and flavors, of heirloom, seasonal produce sourced from local farmers.
Sourcing locally is not without its challenges, the not the least of which is the variability of products available at any given moment during the year. Global shipping, freezing, and overnight air delivery of food products, now second nature, have erased what for millennium was an immutable fact: the inherent seasonality of fruits and vegetables. In a counter-intuitive twist, the global market has actually dramatically reduced diversity within the food supply, to the extent that a slim 30 plant types now feed 95 percent of the world’s population according to Slow Food USA.
Working with seasonal produce is the first step in erasing this trend, and starts with an understanding of which plants are harvested, and when, during the year. Steven Satterfield, Executive Sous Chef at Watershed in Decatur notes, “Seasons can make decisions for you about what the menu will be. If it is available locally, and it tastes good, then it will on the new menu.”
“Anytime we get anything local, we want the fruit and vegetables to stand out on their own,” says Jason Scarborough, Executive Chef and Owner, Blue Moon Cafe in Statesboro. He adds, “Farmers call a couple of days before delivery, and I wrap my menu around them.”
In the quest for flavor, chefs are pushing beyond the appreciation of the virtues of in-season produce. Enter the heirloom varieties: old stock representatives selected over the years for taste and adapted to local climes. It’s not only the heirloom tomato, the patron saint of homegrown vegetables, that entices chefs into heirloom terrain. Scarborough’s cafe’ uses heirloom potatoes, including pink ladies, fingerling Peruvians, and red bliss.
Whippoorwill Hollow Organic Farm, which grows for many restaurants, is a convert. “We try to order seeds that are rare, or both an heirloom and rare,” says farmer Hilda Byrd. The farm’s first foray into heirlooms was the Whippoorwill Pea, a small, speckled field pea packed with flavor. Though not related to the farm of the same name, calls regularly stream in from around the country as people search out the variety that they remember from long ago. The farm also grows a red velvet okra (used by Watershed), and is one of the farms Anson Mills has contracted with to grow the Sea Island Iron Clay Pea, “a very, very tiny pea that makes a gravy to go over the Charleston rices Anson Mills is bringing back,” says Byrd.
Many of these plants lack pedigrees, such as the black Spanish-type peanut that Whippoorwill Hollow grows. This smaller variety, cultivated by Byrd’s brother for 30 years, was originally passed along to him by another farmer. “I don’t know how old they are, or even what variety they are,” says Byrd. What she does know is that their flavor is rich and they sell well at market.
“Although some seeds have lasted for eons, seed does need to renewed periodically,” notes Skip Glover of Glover Family Farm. Particularly in the humid South, varieties need to be grown to remain in the vegetative lexicon, and in order to be grown, there has to be a market for them. Slow Food USA is taking action to preserve these endangered foods, first by cataloguing them in their Ark of Taste project, and in some cases, actively working with farmers to create viable markets that sustain continued production as part of their Presidia project.
In a story that would make a chef cringe, Julie Shaffer, leader of Slow Food Atlanta, relays the tragic tale of California’s Sun Crest Peach. “They’re the most delicious peaches, unbelievable,” says Shaffer. “But because they just did not travel well, farmers started bulldozing their orchards and planting trees that would produce the fruit that the market was buying.” Slow Food USA convinced a grower on the verge of erasing this heritage not to bulldoze in return for a commitment to help him market the peaches. It worked.
Earlier this year, the Seed Savers Exchange distributed seeds from the Ark of Taste free to any Georgia farmers willing to participate in the project. “It’s a method of trying to preserve these endangered foods by making them commercially viable,” says Glover.
Nicolas Donck of Crystal Organic Farm was one of the recipients of the Ark seeds. “Tennis Ball lettuce, Sheepnose pepper, Aunt Ruby’s German Green Tomato:” Donck enthusiastically recounts the varieties he’s nurturing at his farm, including the yellow-meated watermelon of the Tohono O’Odham people of Arizona. Because these varieties tend to be more pest and disease-resistant, they’re more adaptable to organic farming.
There’s yet to be any food unique to Georgia added to the Ark list; animal breeds, fruit and vegetables, cured meats, cheese, cereals, pastas, cakes and confectionery all qualify, and can be nominated online.
With seasonal, heirloom produce on the plate, each meal has the potential of becoming a miniature cultural harvest festival. It’s worked at Watershed. Says Satterfield, “During the summer months, our seasonal hot vegetable plate is our number one selling entree. Cooking seasonally makes our guests more aware of what is in season and when. We won’t serve a tomato until they are available locally, for example, and sometimes that is a hard thing for folks to understand, but it really allows you to appreciate it when the waiting is over and the perfect tomato is in front of you.”
Suzanne Welander is the communications director for Georgia Organics, a nonprofit organization working to integrate healthy, sustainable, and locally grown food into the lives of all Georgians. In addition to Georgia’s Local Food Guide, Georgia Organics publishes a seasonal harvest calendar to help consumers and chefs know what to expect from local farmers throughout the year, available at www.gorgiaorganics.org/calendar. For more information on Slow Food USA, visit www.slowfoodusa.org.
